Medical image information systems are increasingly being used in clinics and relatively large doctor's surgeries to store, display, process and make findings on image objects. PACS systems (PACS=Picture Archiving and Communications System) which were originally used purely for the purpose of image data management are nowadays usually merged with administratively oriented information systems, such as radiology information systems (RIS) or hospital information systems (HIS), to form integrated medical image information systems.
In such integrated medical image information systems, medical images produced using imaging modalities are sent, via; a data network, in the form of pixel data to a data storage device and are stored there together with the administrative text data belonging to the image data, for example patient name, date of birth, patient number, device number, date of examination, study number and so forth. The pixel-based image data of the image objects are usually stored in one or more image data stores and the administrative text data are stored in a separate text data store associated with the image data stores. The image data are typically first of all stored in a short-term image data store, for example a non-volatile RAID store (RAID=Redundant Array of Independent Disks). From there, they may be interrogated within a very short space of time by computer-assisted screen workstations, so-called findings consoles. After a period of time has elapsed or after findings have been made, the pixel data are transmitted to a long-term image data store in order to be permanently archived, which long-term image data store is, for example, in the form of a so-called jukebox with a plurality of tape or disk stores.
The medical image information system is typically in the form of a server/client architecture, the screen workstations (clients) being connected to the data stores (servers), which are used to store data, for data purposes by way of a communication network.
The image objects which are stored in the server are displayed on the basis of a user request made using a graphical user interface GUI which is made available to the screen workstations by an application which runs locally there. In order to display an image object in a graphical user interface, for example in order to view, process or make findings on the images, the image object is transmitted from the image data store containing the image object; usually a short-term image data store, to a local data store of the screen workstation. For this purpose, an item of information, which is contained in the text database and relates to which image data belong to a particular image object and in which image database these image data are stored, is usually first of all acquired and the image object is then loaded into the local data store of the client by sequentially transmitting the data to the client via the communication network.
The integrated medical image information system is usually controlled by means of applications which are locally implemented in the clients and make it possible, in particular, for users to optionally carry out user interactions, such as the request of image objects. An application is generally a computer program containing machine-readable control commands which cause the image information system to carry out a desired method sequence.
For this purpose, at least two applications are implemented in the clients of integrated medical RIS/PACS or HIS/PACS image information systems. These applications are a text data application, which can be associated with the original RIS system (or HIS system) and is used solely to manage administrative text data of the image objects, and an image data application which can be associated with the original PACS system and is used solely to manage pixel-based image data of the image objects. It goes without saying that the two applications may be considered to be a single application having subfunctions associated with the text data application and the image data application.
Image objects are displayed by the client, under the control of the image data application, in the form of two-dimensional slice images or three-dimensional volume displays, the volume displays first of all having to be determined by computer from the slice images (“3D rendering”). Text data are displayed by the text data application. The operations of displaying and processing the pixel-based image data, in particular 3D rendering, require a relatively high computing power of the client, with the result that the hardware of the client must be designed in an appropriately powerful manner in order to execute the image data application, which, however, is associated with relatively high costs on account of the usual multiplicity of clients in the same image information system.